GA to invest $ 400- $ 500 mn in India in next 2-3 years – William Ford, CEO, General Atlantic

As reported by Economic times, in his latest visit to India, William Ford, CEO, General Atlantic, seem to be quite bullish on growth of Indian entrepreneurs and is looking forward to deploy around $400-$500 million in Indian growth capital in coming 2-3 years.

Ford also believes that the people of India are highly energetic.”We are also talking to some Indian families and Indians outside to be our LPs. It’s a special group to be associated with. We would really love to have them as our sponsors,” said Ford.

In India, GA have invested around $1 billion in around 14 companies, the first being Genpact and Patni in the outsourcing segment. It has successfully exited from both these companies with a return of $1.4 billion and is now eyeing Mu Sigma, an analytics service provider having a valuation under billion dollars.

The funds will be managed by Sandeep Naik, the fund’s new MD in India. With a wishlist of 5-7 companies, he said, “The economics of the business has to work and we need evidence of that. Few will pass the test. Can they scale to profitability?”, thus making it clear that it won’t be an easy path for the Indian companies to get through.

Founded in 1980, Greenwich based, General Atlantic is a global growth equity investment firm managing approximately $17 billion in capital with more than 80 investment professionals all over the world. The typical investment ranges from $75-$400 million with around 10-12 investments each year.GA’s Indian portfolio also consists of IndusInd Bank, Fourcee, Asian Genco, IBS Software Services, NSE, Hexaware, Jubilant LifeSciences and Infotech Enterprises ltd.